August 2017 AirMail

EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2017 is now a thing of the past. For those of us who made the annual sabbatical it was a magical time spent with family, friends and all things aviation.

AirVenture 2017 was also one for the record books. It was a monumental statistical success with approximately 590,000 attending, an increase of five percent over 2016. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 aircraft flew into Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh where ATC adroitly handled 17,223 aircraft operations in a ten-day period. Wow! Full column >>

News

2017 Vintage AirVenture Lindy Award Winners

On Saturay evening, July 29th, in an Awards Ceremony attended by several hundred members and guests, Chief Judge Jerry Brown presented 64 aircraft awards culminating with the Antique, Classic, and Contemporary Gold Lindy award winning aircraft shown below. Click on an image beow to view all the awards in that aircraft category:

Features

Hidden Treasure: Vintage Tram Tour
by Barry Perlman, Red Barn Co-ChairAfter 33 years, it is time to increase the visibility of one of the gems of Vintage Village at Oshkosh – the Vintage Tram Tour.Begun in 1984 and run each convention since then by your hosts Jim and Mary LeFevre, who have overseen the tram tour all these years, this tour is the best way to get a close up view of the wide variety of vintage aircraft parked along our two mile flightline.Full story >>

Outstanding Flights: THE FIRST NONSTOP COAST-TO-COAST FLIGHT

Intro and research by Wes Schmid, VAA 6688, EAA 3113

The first trans-continental flight across America was made in 1911, just 8 years after the Wright’s historic 59 second, 852 foot distance flown over the sands at Kitty Hawk January 17, 1903. But it took Calbraith “Cal” Perry Rodgers who took off from Sheepshead Bay, New York on September 17, 1911, a total of 49 days to reach Long Beach, Pasadena, California on November 5, 1911.

His Wright EX biplane was named “Win Fiz”. It was powered with a Wright 4-cylinder water cooled engine of 35 horsepower, driving two pusher propellers.

The Hearst newspapers, at the time, had offered a $50,000 prize for the first coast-to-coast flight completed within 30 days.Full story >>